DOCSLIB.ORG

Thyestes, Acts 1 and 2

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Thyestes, Acts 1 and 2 Archived at the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/ Daalder, J. (Ed.). (1982). Thyestes (J. Heywood, Trans.) (New Mermaids series). London: Ernest Benn Limited. Copyright (1982) Ernest Benn Limited. Published version of the text reproduced here with permission from the editor and the publisher. Personal use of this material is permitted. that to reprint/republish this material for Please note advertising or promotional purposes, or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works, permission must be obtained from the editor and the publisher. I vi SE~ECAIHEYWOOD If L. A N. S e N E C A E CHORVS. Anaporfrici,pra-ur unum & alrcrum Adonlum. vo tm.trurn,{uprrionq; parrns, Q Cuius ttd ort us noCl1s opac~C Dtc~M omnr fogit,quo Ut'rtls rtt"rf J..'itdioq; dmn pnd1s Olympof Cur Phcxbe tuos .rapls aJPcCl~Mf :Nondum {ru.nuntiuf bor~C N ott urn auocat .lumina urjptr. ·.~~ fa)cnrra rnhtulrb ~hp~ Non®m Htf1mi.~:flrxur~t rot~ rftrs fdUbfullr 4'n;h1 Jubtt cmrricos {olun-e CU7Tu5. (brb bP }afprr ""'~ :N ond&~m in r.oflrm urrgrntr die tDool' frlfotut of Tttti.t mifit buccin11 fignum. 3:1Coln£ .Cob Stupct ad {ubit~C ttmpord cCXM lcgt Non dum fofTu bub~M 4Tdtor. CR _,JfOJble QEid tt td'rtio ptpulit c:ur{u! Qg.c C.tU{4 tUOJ finUtt CrTtO Driedt equosfnunquid dperto IMPRINTED AT Cdl'ure DitJ) uiCli,trntztnt konbon an 1lrtrftncc BeUd gigdntcstnunquid Tit''" an tbr bf»ae lata Pettore fiffo rrncuat uetms C[bomae 15tr:; Saucitu ir.t~fnum reidlo r~dcUt8. Latus txpticuit monte T bypboe!Uf •ftnnitur Nunquid•firuitur ui.t Pbleguos ~nno. J 56 e. Alt:Zf. per boftesfc- T beff41icum 2 6.dic Man.,. TbreJTtt pmmtur Pelion 6ffaf Soliu mundi prrirrc uices. Nibil occa{tu,nibil ortus rrit. Stupet Eoos ttJTum. deo . Trdtrt Act IV, Chorus, in Gryphius' editzon (I 541 ) [Dedication] To the Right Honourable Sir John Mason, Knight, one of the Queen's Majesty's Privy Council, his daily ora­ tor jasper Heywood wishes health with increase of honour and virtue. As bounden breast doth bear the poorest wight That duty doth in trifling token send, As he that doth with plenteous present quite Of prouder price and glitt'ring gold his friend, Who so repay'th with money's mighty mass 5 The good that he at other's hands hath found, Remembrance of the benefice doth pass; He thinks himself to him no longer bound. The poor, whose pow'r may not with price repay The great good gifts that he receiv'd before, 10 Dedication (called 'The Ep1stle' in 1560): john Mason (1503-66) was appointed to the Privy Council in 1543, and was Chancellor of Oxford Universitv when, in 1560, H dedicated Th_y~ces to him. Apart from being Mason·~ 'daily orator' (Petitioner), H had been friendly ,,.,th his decea~ed son. Mason had b«n a Fellow of All Souls College before H, who became one in 1558, ~rhaps with Mason's help, after he had earlier that year been forced to resign as a Fdlow of Merton College. H t$ expressing graurude to an effective patron. Cf H's 'Preface', 173 ff. 1-4 1\s . • friend The poorest creature, though acknowledging that he bears a 'bounden breast', sometimes repays his benefactor just as inadequately as the rich man. because, also lacklng in 'thankful thought' (II), he instead sends, as his debt (dury), no more than a trifling token ofwhat be should see as his real ob!Jgation--something requiring attention, DO( ~rfunctorinesa. 2 rrifling (also)false, feiping 3 quire requite 4 prouder merely that, because the difference with the poor man is one of degree only, m this lund of action 7 beneflce kindncs., fa,"OUr (which price, 4, cannot com~nsate for) 7 ~neglect, let s!Jp by 3 4 SENECA!HEYWOOD With thankful thought yet gogin gift doth sway, Above the peise of pearl and gold great store. If puissant prince at poor man's hand once took A radish root, and was therewith content, The translator Your Honour then I pray this little book 15 to the book. To take in worth that I to you present; Which though itself a volume be but small, Yet greater gift it gives than ween ye might; Thou little book my messenger must be Though it a barren book be throughout all That must from me to wight of honour go; Full fruitless, yet not faithless sign in sight 20 Behave thee humbly, bend to him thy knee, It shows of him that for Your Honour prays And thee to him in lowly manner show. (As deeds of yours of him deserved have) But do thou not thyself to him present 5 That God above prolong your happy days, When with affairs thou shalt him troubled see; And make the skies your seat soon after grave. Thou shalt, perhaps, so worthily be shent, · And with reproof he thus will say to thee, 'So proudly thus pre~ume how darest thou At such a time so rashly to appear? 10 With things of weight thou seest me burd'ned now, I may not yet to trifles give mine ear.' Spy well thy time, when thou him seest alone, An idle hour for thee shall be most meet; Then step thou forth, in sight of him anone, 15 And as behoves, His Honour humbly greet. Bm now take heed what Ito thee shall tell, And all by rote this lesson take with thee; In every thing thyself to order well In sight of him, give ear and learn of me. 20 First, what or whence thou art if he would wit, Then see that thou thy title to him show, Tell him thy name is in thy forehead writ, By which he shall both thee and me well know. Then when he hath once look'd upon thy name, 25 If yet he shall neglect to read the re~t, Or if he chide and say thou art to blame With trifles such to have him so oppress'd, Beseech him yet thereof to pardon thee, Since thou art but thy master's messenger­ 30 Excuse thyself and lay the fault in me, At whose commandment thus thou com'st in there. II fOGin i.~. gudgeon. u>ed adj~tivally for 'very smaU', though 'll13nkfulthought' JS m fa.: I 'great store' (with •way=gi,·~ wdght tol; gudgron also may mnn 'pi\"O!al' ,with If my presumption then accuse he do, $1l'li)"=IDO\"C £0 and fro) Jl ~i.<c weight 2 "·ight ofhonour honourable penon, i.e 51.1' john Mason (cf. !Xd~Cation' B J(pui<.unc pnn..~ ff. an allusion to an anecdote; for detaili cf. D\' i so "urrhil.r in a IIWlller descni:lg of that action 15 licrlc book i.e. o.:u,-o, a.< the 1560 Tbyesc~ ts 7 s.b~nr rebuked; disgraced 16 L~ worrh in good part, as som~tlung ,-.Juable in its own way I~ aoondi.e. anon.\ at once IS IO"C<'D think 21 107r know, learn 5 6 SENECAIHEYWOOD If deed so rash of mine he do reprO\·e That I thee dare attempt to send him to, Beware thou speak nothing for my beho,·e. 35 Nor do thou nor excuse my fault in aught, But rather yet confess to him the same The Preface And say there may a fault in me be thought Which to excuse it doubleth but the blame. Yet with my boldness him beseech to bear 40 It was the four and twentieth day of latest month save one And pardon give to this my enterprise; Of all the year, when flow'r and fruit from field and tree were A wonhy thing in wight of honour were gone, A present poor to take in thankful wise. And sadder season such ensu'd as dulls the doleful sprites For tell him, though thou slender \'Olume be, And Muse of men that wonted were to wander in delights; Ungreeing gift for state-of-honour guest, 45 And weather such there was as well became the pensive pen s Yet dost thou sign of duty bring with thee With sorry style of woes to write and eke of mischief, when And pledge thou art of truly bounden breast. Aurora blush'd with ruddy cheeks to wail the death again And thou for him art come for to confess, Of Phoebus' son, whom thunderbolt of mighty Jove had slain; And clouds from high began to throw their dreary tears adown, His headman bound to be for his desart, 10 And how ro him he grants he ow'th no less, 50 And Venus from the skies above on Friday foul to frown; ~or gi\·es no more, but note of thankful heart. When (as at book with mazed Muse I sat and pensive thought In all the rest that he to thee shall say Deep drown'd in dumps -of drowsiness as change of weather Thv '1\it shaU serve an answer well to make. wrought) Thou hast thine errand, get thee hence away, I felt how Morpheus bound my brows and eke my temples The gods thee speed, to them I thee betake. 55 stroke, That down I sunk my heavy head and slept upon my book. Then dream'd I thus, that by my side me thought I saw one stand 15 That down to ground m scarlet gown was dight; and in his hand 1-1 Ic ••• _w:ar H staned work on his translation on 24th November, 1559; it "''ll$ pubtished on 26th M.arch, 1560 6 sorry expressing dist~ss 6 cniM:hicf misfonune; evil-doing.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Darkness of Man: a Study of Light and Dark Imagery in Seneca's
    The Darkness of Man: A Study of Light and Dark Imagery in Seneca’s Thyestes and Agamemnon A Senior Thesis in Classics The Colorado College In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts By Emily Kohut May 2016 Kohut 1 Acknowledgments I would like to give my deepest and heartfelt thanks to Colorado College’s Classics department. Thank you Owen Cramer, Sanjaya Thakur, Marcia Dobson, and Richard Buxton for all of your help, edits, and advice throughout the course of my time here at CC and especially while working on this project. Thank you to my family and friends for supporting me through this whole process and to the many others who have been involved in my time here at CC. This has been an amazing experience and I could not have done it without all of you. Thank you very much. Kohut 2 The Darkness of Man: A Study of Light and Dark Imagery in Seneca’s Thyestes and Agamemnon Seneca’s Thyestes and Agamemnon are texts in which light rarely presents itself, instead it is dark that is present from start to finish. Throughout the course of these texts, I take note of the use and presence, or lack, of light. There appear to be two specific uses of light that serve specific purposes in Thyestes and Agamemnon: natural light (generally indicated with primarily die- or luc-1 based words), and artificial light (referenced by words related to/derived from flamma or ardeo2). Natural light is prominently used only when discussing its being consumed by darkness, while artificial light appears in passages saturated with destruction and chaos.
    [Show full text]
  • Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides Translated by Nicholas Rudall Directed by Charles Newell
    STUDY GUIDE Photo of Mark L. Montgomery, Stephanie Andrea Barron, and Sandra Marquez by joe mazza/brave lux, inc Sponsored by Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides Translated by Nicholas Rudall Directed by Charles Newell SETTING The action takes place in east-central Greece at the port of Aulis, on the Euripus Strait. The time is approximately 1200 BCE. CHARACTERS Agamemnon father of Iphigenia, husband of Clytemnestra and King of Mycenae Menelaus brother of Agamemnon Clytemnestra mother of Iphigenia, wife of Agamemnon Iphigenia daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra Achilles son of Peleus Chorus women of Chalcis who came to Aulis to see the Greek army Old Man servant of Agamemnon, was given as part of Clytemnestra’s dowry Messenger ABOUT THE PLAY Iphigenia in Aulis is the last existing work of the playwright Euripides. Written between 408 and 406 BCE, the year of Euripides’ death, the play was first produced the following year in a trilogy with The Bacchaeand Alcmaeon in Corinth by his son, Euripides the Younger, and won the first place at the Athenian City Dionysia festival. Agamemnon Costume rendering by Jacqueline Firkins. 2 SYNOPSIS At the start of the play, Agamemnon reveals to the Old Man that his army and warships are stranded in Aulis due to a lack of sailing winds. The winds have died because Agamemnon is being punished by the goddess Artemis, whom he offended. The only way to remedy this situation is for Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess Artemis. Agamemnon then admits that he has sent for Iphigenia to be brought to Aulis but he has changed his mind.
    [Show full text]
  • Teknophagy and Tragicomedy: the Mythic Burlesques of Tereus and Thyestes
    This is a repository copy of Teknophagy and Tragicomedy: The Mythic Burlesques of Tereus and Thyestes. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126374/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Haley, M orcid.org/0000-0002-7697-3568 (2018) Teknophagy and Tragicomedy: The Mythic Burlesques of Tereus and Thyestes. Ramus, 47 (2). pp. 152-173. ISSN 0048-671X https://doi.org/10.1017/rmu.2018.12 © Ramus 2019. This article has been published in a revised form in Ramus: https://doi.org/10.1017/rmu.2018.12. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Ramus Submission 2017 Teknophagy and Tragicomedy: The Mythic Burlesques of Tereus and Thyestes Teknophagy (τεκνοφαγία), or child-eating, is an apt subject for tragedy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Medea of Euripides and Seneca: a Comparison
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1941 The Medea of Euripides and Seneca: A Comparison Mary Enrico Frisch Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation Frisch, Mary Enrico, "The Medea of Euripides and Seneca: A Comparison" (1941). Master's Theses. 180. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/180 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1941 Mary Enrico Frisch -If.. THE MEDEA OF EURIPIDES AND SENECA: A COMPARISON by Sister Mary Enrico Frisch, S.S.N.D. A Thesis submitted 1n partial ~ul~illment o~ the requirements ~or the degree o~ Master o~ Arts Loyola University August, 1941 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Introduction: Survey o~ Opinion. 1 II Broad Similarities in Moti~ and 6 Sentiment. III Broad Similarities in the Plot 30 o~ the Medea o~ Euripides and the Medea o~ Seneca. IV Parallels in Phraseology. 51 v Characters and Their Attitude 73 to the Gods. Bibliography a. Re~erences ~or the Medea 91 o~ Euripides. b. Re~erences ~or the Medea 95 o~ Seneca. c. General Works. 98 THE MEDEA OF EURIPIDES AND SENECA: A COMPARISON Chapter I INTRODUCTION: SURVEY OF OPINION It is not a new theory that Seneca used the plays o~ Eurip­ ides as models for his Latin tragedies, particularly his Medea, Hippolytus, Hercules Furens, Troades and the Phoenissae.
    [Show full text]
  • Night (Thyestes 2.0)
    This script was freely downloaded from the (re)making project, (charlesmee.org). We hope you'll consider supporting the project by making a donation so that we can keep it free. Please click here to make a donation. Night (Thyestes 2.0) by C H A R L E S L . M E E A companion piece to Day (Daphnis and Chloe 2.0). This, Thyestes 2.0 is night, Daphnis and Chloe 2.0 is day. The pieces can be done individually—or together, under the title Night and Day. A woman in a full length black evening dress comes out to a microphone that stands downstage center. She speaks into the microphone. THE WOMAN Act one, scene one. Tantalus, a mortal friend of the gods, decides to test their omniscience. He kills his own son, Pelops, chops him up and boils him, and plans to feed him to the gods as animal meat. Scene two. The gods realize the truth and are horrified; they put the pieces of the boy back together- and send Tantalus to Hades. Scene three. Tortured by thirst, Tantalus stands in water that reaches only to his chin. Food just out of his reach. Tantalized forever. Act two, scene one. Pelops grows up and falls in love with Hippodamia. But the father of Hippodamia, in order to test potential suitors, has declared that anyone who wants to marry his daughter must first beat him in a chariot race. Scene two. The crafty Pelops strikes a secret bargain with the father's personal charioteer: if the charioteer will sabotage the father's chariot, Pelops will let the charioteer sleep with Hippodamia on the wedding night.
    [Show full text]
  • Iphigenia in Tauris. Translated by Anna Swanwick
    rPT idZt> . 3 U.c HANDY LITERAL TRANSLATIONS. 90 VOLUMES " To one who is reading the Classics, a literal translation ts a con- ietit and legitimate help: .... and every -well-informed person itnU d th' Classics eithr.r in the original or in a translation.*' Caesar's Gallic War. The 7 Books Demosthenes' Olynthiacs, Philippics Caesar's Civil War Euripides' Alcestis, and hlectra Catullus Euripides'Bacchantes, Herc.Furens Cirero's Brutus Euripides' Hecuba, and Andromache Cicero's Defense of Roscius Euripides' I phig. In Aulis, In Tauris Cicero De Officiis Euripides' Medea Cicero On Old Age and Friendship Herodotus, Books VI and VII Cicero On Oratory Herodotus, Book VIII Cicero On the Nature of the Gads Homer's Iliad, tke 1st Six Bookt Cicero's Select Orations Homer's Odyssey, fst 12 Bookt Cicero's Select Letters. 2 rr>ts. Lucian's Select Dialogues, 2 volt. Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Lysias' Orations Cornelius Nepos, complete Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo Eutropius Plato's Gorgias Horace, complete Plato's Inches (paper) Satires, eompUtt Plato's Protagoras, Euthyphroa tivenal'sivy. Books I and II Plato's Republic Uvy. Books XXI and XXII Sophocles' O7-d. Tyr. F.Iec., Antig O 'id's Metamorphoses, a voli. Thucydides, Books I-IV Phzdrjis' Fables Thucydides, Books V-VIII Plautus Captivi, and Mostelaria Xenophno's Anabasis, rst 4 Btokt Pbuius'Pseudolus; Miles Gloriosus Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 2 volumet Plant us'Trinummus.and Mensechmi Xenophon's Hqllenica, Symposium Pliny s Select Letters. 2 To/umes Xenophon's Memorabilia, compUt* Quintilian Books X and XII Roman Life in Lat.
    [Show full text]
  • Euripides and Gender: the Difference the Fragments Make
    Euripides and Gender: The Difference the Fragments Make Melissa Karen Anne Funke A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Ruby Blondell, Chair Deborah Kamen Olga Levaniouk Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics © Copyright 2013 Melissa Karen Anne Funke University of Washington Abstract Euripides and Gender: The Difference the Fragments Make Melissa Karen Anne Funke Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Ruby Blondell Department of Classics Research on gender in Greek tragedy has traditionally focused on the extant plays, with only sporadic recourse to discussion of the many fragmentary plays for which we have evidence. This project aims to perform an extensive study of the sixty-two fragmentary plays of Euripides in order to provide a picture of his presentation of gender that is as full as possible. Beginning with an overview of the history of the collection and transmission of the fragments and an introduction to the study of gender in tragedy and Euripides’ extant plays, this project takes up the contexts in which the fragments are found and the supplementary information on plot and character (known as testimonia) as a guide in its analysis of the fragments themselves. These contexts include the fifth- century CE anthology of Stobaeus, who preserved over one third of Euripides’ fragments, and other late antique sources such as Clement’s Miscellanies, Plutarch’s Moralia, and Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae. The sections on testimonia investigate sources ranging from the mythographers Hyginus and Apollodorus to Apulian pottery to a group of papyrus hypotheses known as the “Tales from Euripides”, with a special focus on plot-type, especially the rape-and-recognition and Potiphar’s wife storylines.
    [Show full text]
  • Aeschylusaeschylus
    AeschylusAeschylus •The Life and Times of Aeschylus •Aeschylus’ Contributions to Greek Tragedy • Overview of Myth: The House of Atreus •Aeschylus’ Agamemnon AeschylusAeschylus LifeLife andand TimesTimes •after winning both the Persian Wars, the Athenians’ spirits soared •they threw themselves into the arts with unprecedented energy and confidence • tragedy was among those arts, one which received much public attention AeschylusAeschylus LifeLife andand TimesTimes •the first tragedian whose work survives is AeschylusAeschylus (ca. 525 BCE ‐ 456 BCE) • according to his tombstone, Aeschylus fought in the Persian Wars •but it does not mention his drama • according to him, then, his most important achievement in life was fighting for freedom, not writing plays AeschylusAeschylus LifeLife andand TimesTimes •Aeschylus won the Dionysia for the first time in 484 BCE •he produced his last known trilogy in 458 BCE: Oresteia (including Agamemnon) •he wrote and produced over eighty plays during his life •thus, he entered the Dionysia at least twenty times AeschylusAeschylus ContributionsContributions toto DramaDrama •but only seven of his plays have survived •most in school texts, cf. Epic of Gilgamesh • nevertheless, we can see that he was the most important playwright of his day: –he won five or more victories at the Dionysia –later playwrights often referenced and imitated—and satirized!—his work –the audiences of the next generation enjoyed revivals of his drama AeschylusAeschylus ContributionsContributions toto DramaDrama •Aeschylus introduced
    [Show full text]
  • Illinois Classical Studies
    8 Tragic Contaminatio in Ovid's Metamorphoses: Procne and Medea; Philomela and Iphigeneia (6. 424-674); ScyUa and Phaedra (8. 19-151)^ DAVID H. J. LARMOUR Ovid's use of tragic sources in his Metamorphoses is varied and complex. The principal sources at his disposal were the Latin adaptations of Greek plays by Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius and Accius and the original Greek versions of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and others. That Ovid was famiUar with, and made extensive use of, the tragic tradition is not in dispute,^ but some clarification of how he incorporated this material into the Metamorphoses seems appropriate. Basically, Ovid uses tragic sources in two ways: most frequently, he structures his own account of a particular story around the traditional tragic version—in the Phaethon (1. 747-2. 339), the Pentheus (3. 511-733) and the Hecuba (13. 399-575), for instance, the canonical Euripidean treatments form the basis of the ' Line numbers pertain to the Teubner edition of W. S. Anderson (Leipzig 1985). The following works will be cited by the author's surname only: J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Baltimore 1982); F. P. Bomer, Ovidius Metamorphase n. Kommentar, 7 vols. (Heidelberg 1969-86); I. Cazzaniga, La saga di Itys nella tradizione letteraria e mitografica Greco-Romana, 2 vols. (MUan 1950-51); H. M. Currie, "Ovid and the Roman Stage," ANRW 11 31.4 (1981) 2701-42; B. Otis. Ovid as an Epic Poei^ (Cambridge 1970); H. Jacobson, Ovid's Heroides (Princeton 1974). ^ See Currie; G. D' Anna, "La tragedia latina arcaica nelle Metamorfosi," Alii del Convegno inlernazionale Ovidiano U (Rome 1959) 217-34; S.
    [Show full text]
  • Seneca's Agamemnon: a Literary Translation with Annotations
    Seneca’s Agamemnon: A Literary Translation with Annotations A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Classics of the College of Arts and Sciences 2017 by Jason Clay B.S. Loyola University New Orleans, 2014 Committee Chairs: Lauren Donovan Ginsberg, Ph.D. and Valeria Sergueenkova, Ph.D. Abstract This project is a literary translation of Seneca the Younger’s Agamemnon. As the only extant Latin tragedian, Seneca’s work is invaluable to the history of drama. In the past, Seneca’s tragedies were understudied, yet they are now steadily gaining critical attention following a renewed interest in Silver Latin. This project aims to fill one of the gaps that previous inattention has caused: there are not many modern translations of Seneca’s tragedies, with the exception of Fitch’s Loeb, and A.J. Boyle’s translations and commentaries on Senecan tragedies. In my translation and annotation, I hope to underscore what makes Seneca’s tragedies so fascinating and worthy of study. With regards to translation, I tried to remain close to the original Latin, but I also recognize that Seneca’s style can be a bit clunky if one tries to adhere too closely. A major component of Seneca’s style is the influence of rhetoric and declamation, including frequent alliteration and wordplay that I tried to include in my translation. I wanted to highlight the intense emotion these characters feel. These are characters who are struggling to control their heightened emotions, and I hope to catch their struggle.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Tragedy
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87974-3 - An Introduction to Greek Tragedy Ruth Scodel Excerpt More information 1 Defining Tragedy The very term “Greek tragedy” carries an immense weight of cultural and critical baggage. Even though the cultural prestige of the genre is often the inspiration for us to read, produce, or see these plays, this very prestige interferes with our ability to appreciate them. However, we cannot expect simply to shake off all the assumptions we have inher- ited about what a Greek tragedy is supposed to be. We would not want to, since we could not make sense of the texts at all without the scholar- ship of the past. Yet with that scholarship come inherited assumptions and expectations that distort. If we can at least identify some of these assumptions, even if we cannot see the plays in some pure, neutral way – for we will always see them or read them both through our beliefs about the ancient Greeks and about the genre, and through the con- cerns and presuppositions of our own place and time – we can at least see them more freshly. There is one basic tension in any encounter with Greek tragedy that we should not even want to escape. These plays come from an ancient culture that is in some ways very distant from our own. Yet we expect them to move us and even to help us better understand our lives. If we rush too quickly to find universal meanings, we will probably ignore or misread whatever is profoundly different. But if we read them entirely as documents from a foreign culture – a polytheistic, slaveholding, misogynistic culture – they will lose their power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Subjectivity of Revenge: Senecan Drama and the Discovery of the Tragic in Kyd and Shakespeare
    THE SUBJECTIVITY OF REVENGE: SENECAN DRAMA AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE TRAGIC IN KYD AND SHAKESPEARE JORDICORAL D.PHIL THE UNIVERSITY OF YORK DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND RELATED LITERATURE SEPTEMBER 2001 But all the time life, always one and the same, always incomprehensibly keeping its identity, fills the universe and is renewed at every moment in innumerable combinations and metamorphoses. You are anxious about whether you will rise from the dead or not, but you have risen already - you rose from the dead when you were born and you didn't notice it. Will you feel pain? Do the tissues feel their disintegration? In other words, what will happen to your consciousness. But what is consciousness? Let's see. To try consciously to go to sleep is a sure way of having insomnia, to try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a beam of light directed outwards, it lights up the way ahead of us so that we do not trip up. It's like the head-lamps on a railway engine - if you turned the beam inwards there would be a catastrophe. 'So what will happen to your consciousness? Your consciousness, yours, not anybody else's. Well, what are you? That's the crux of the matter. Let's try to find out. What is it about you that you have always known as yourself? What are you conscious of in yourself? Your kidneys? Your liver? Your blood vessels? - No.
    [Show full text]